Where Did You Say the Veggies Came From?

Tue. morning and it says that it will rain today. Sure looks like it. Oh well, I have stuff to do on the computer. Fixed my lawn mower yesterday, after I broke a shear pin on it. The worse thing is having to go to Halifax for the part. Actually I tried to make one but it was just a guess. It worked well enough that the mower started but after awhile it would loosen things up. When I got the new part, I saw that mine wasn't quite the same size. It has to be aluminum about half inch long and about as thick as a four in. nail. I bought a spare one so I could see the size. I'm still going to try and make one and the reason is because. Of course I may never break it again. Fixed the lawn mower, cut the grass and went for a two mile walk. That was all the important stuff.

It looks like the Superstore was trying to pull a fast one on us. Telling us that fruit and vegetables are locally grown. I guess they thought us too dumb to notice the stickers saying Ontario and parts of the U.S. I have a great idea, you could get the stuff at the Yarmouth hospital (previous article) or the hospital could make a deal with the Superstore.  Another great idea is that the Superstore could actually buy the produce from Nova Scotia farmers.

Saw this article that gays make better parents. You have to take this with a grain of salt. People doing studies have the study leaning in the way they want so it gets the results they want. Next point. I'm assuming the person doing the article is gay. No one writes an article that shows themselves in a bad light. That someone would be a better parent than her. My mother died when I was twelve, leaving me with four younger brothers and a father. And let me tell you that growing up without a mother is not the best way to travel. That's for boys, for girls growing up without a mother, probably worse. No matter how good a parent you are, there is still a hole when one is missing. On the other hand, sometimes you are better off when one is missing. And the study, do it in fifty years time when you actually have results.

The Bamboo Bicycle and You

Read this article and found it a bit hard to get my head around. "Veggies for sale at Yarmouth hospital." What they are doing is holding a farmers market in the cafeteria. I know the health care system is having a hard time but I don't think this will generate much cash. What they say they are doing is supplying fresh vegetables to the staff but other people can come and shop there too. It looks like a lot of "green thumbs" had a very good growing season. Now what to do with it? Still think it's a bit over the top, it being a hospital and all.  Must have been a slow news day. Good luck to them all.
"The Expendables" is I suppose the ultimate in action films. Read an article from a critic last week. He thought the movie was going to be a comedy. So going to see it with this preconceived idea, he had a letdown. I don't think his criticism was justified because the movie was not what he expected to see. An action movie, it is what it is. It's for entertainment, not anything for deep thought.

Stallone has certainlly been busy writing the last few years. First "Rocky" which he brought to a close. Then "Rambo" which he brought to a close. Now this new film which could be the start of a series of films to keep the old guys in work. Negative ctitics or not, the film got 35 million the first day. If you like action films, there you are. Lots of boom and bang.

Looking to invest your money in something? I have the perfect plan for you. An uptrending market. Bamboo. Did you know that bamboo grows about a meter a day and has a strength to weight ratio similar to that of steel?  So what's the big deal with bamboo? Bicycles. Startups for bamboo bicycle shops are taking off like crazy in the U.S. and internet business for bamboo bicycle kits are booming. Another point for green freaks is that the frame can be disposed of in your compose bin.

Enough Refugees To Go Around

Sunday morning. Wondering what kind of trouble I will get into today? Another nice day. Same as yesterday. Mowed my neighbour's lawn the other day. Hit a rock. Bent the blade and took out the shear pin. So I will have to replace both. The worse part is the trip to Halifax. Will take an hour for the return trip. Grass growing slowing down, so there will be less cutting. Went for my 2 mile walk. Don't see too many people on a Sun. morning. It used to be that you would see them going to church. People are much smarter now. They can do everything without God. That doesn't include me. I go to mass on Sat. evening. Did you ever notice how some people get upset if you are sitting in their seat? Happened to me some years ago. It was during a weekday mass. A woman came and sat in front of me and a few minutes later she turned around and told me to get out of her seat. So I moved. Not like there wasn't enough room since there was only twelve of in church. I remembered this because she died last week. I haven't seen her for years. My wife told me years ago, that she had been a professor and went over the edge.

I see that Quebec is trying to put the screws to Newfoundland again. Years ago, Newfoundland built a dam in Labrador and shipped the power to Quebec for a set long term price. Quebec turned around and sold it to the U.S. and kept the profit. Now Nfld is building another dam and Que. wants the same deal. Que. is determined to screw Nfld on this deal. So Nfld has decided to put an undersea cable to Nova Scotia and get access to the U.S. that way. They are trying to get some money under the infrastructure program to help with this. They are pulling their weight in Ottawa to put a clamp on this. Now it is out in the open and there are some unhappy people. Some months ago, Quebec was all set to buy NB Power. There was so much stink about it, the New Brunswick government back tracked on it and the deal fell through. So what is Que. up to, trying to get control of all the maritime power? And what would be next.

Seems that we are a soft touch for any refugees. We've known that for years and now a ship with 490 Tamils from Sri Lanka has docked. The first thing I have to say about that is that I can't imagine being on a cargo ship for three months. A lot of them paid for this passage, giving funds to the terrorists. They would also sneak some of their terrorists into the passanger list. Hopefully those in charge have enough of the grey matter to sort them out. You can't blame the people for wanting a better life. Wouldn't you? I heard that there are two more ships on the way. Better beef up that welfare.

This is from the "I've heard it all now category." A woman in Philly stole almost half a million from her boss. Her sentence was twenty-one years of house arrest with her mother. Her ex boss said he was more interested in getting the money back than sending her to jail. So now she works from home and pays back $700. a month. At that rate it will take 21 years. I guess she is hoping to get a raise so she can get out earlier. The article doesn't say, but I'm assuming she still has the same boss unless she works for the prison system. Also doesn't say if she gets vacations. I guess marriage is off the table. Imagine listening to your mother for the next 21 yrs?

Migrant Workers or Welfare Beer Drinkers?

Friday morning of what promises to be a nice day, as far as weather is concerned. Yesterday I thought would be a good day to start cleaning my shed out. Put a green garbage bin outside and proceeded to fill it. So what started off in the morning as prized possessions  for repairs etc, ended the day as garbage. I'm sure that some of the items will be classified in the future as a "why did I throw that out item." Some items like four van tires, I will sell and others will go to Value Village. I'm not putting a time frame on this because some days I am more fed up with my storage area and I become the mad slasher.

A few years ago when I was coming back from California, there were a number of Mexicans on the plane. At customs they were asked if they could speak French or English. When the answer was no, they were welcomed with open arms. Me, on the other hand, having the appearance of a druglord, was roasted. Finding only Lipitor, I was greeted with a "Welcome Home." On hearing that, I realized what situation I was in. You have to know that they can't let everyone in without asking any questions. They have to ask someone. And that would be someone who will give them the right answers.  They don't want to pick the wrong guy and up with mountains of paperwork or worse. And I'll tell you something important. Don't trry and start a conversation with them. Then you are asking for trouble.

At that time I didn't learn much about the Mexicans but now I have that all cased. Migrant workers are what they were. We use migrant workers in Nova Scotia to pick strawberries. They come from Mexico and Jamica. Having these workers is part of our foreign aid program to these countries. I have to admit that's pretty smart. Giving the money to the workers rather than passing a cheque to the government. Not only that, the foreign governments pay for part of the medical expenses. So they have return airfare, housing, medical and are paid at Canadian wage levels. It sends a lot of oney back to their families.

Why do we have to resort to migrant workers? Like our American cousins, our people are too lazy to do the work. They would rather stay on welfare. One school of thought would have the welfare taken away and make them go to work. But would you really want to do that? Do you really want to send someone who spends his time sitting on his ass drinking beer out to pick strawberries? Cheaper to fly in Mexicans. Now don't get me wrong.  In some cases welfare is needed but in other cases people make a career of it.

Facebook entry for today: Once they were my brothers, now they are just called my relatives.
(Think about that one.)

Right Blue Jeans - Wrong Body

Yesterday was a warm, muggy day. Today, somewhat the same. My wife & daughter came home monday. When my wife looked in the freezer, she saw this large gaping hole. She was so happy and yesterday it was off to the supermarket. Had to fill that spot. One thing she didn't realize was that part of that hole was filled by a chocolate cake.

"One of the most frustating things for women is that they are not finding the right jeans for their body." Ha, ha, ha. Sorry for my outburst of laughter. I read that and it did tickle my funnybone. So Levi will now have three new models of jeans, all with a size 27 waist. For american customers? Ha, ha, ha. This just keeps getting funnier. Maybe they shouldn't manufacture too many of that size. They never mentioned anything about stretch bands for the front. Yes, when I go out I notice a lot with 27" waist. OK I'm lying. When I read a little farther, I noticed the designs were made by an oriental. Does that tell you something?

It's official now. The swine flu pandemic is over. The drug companies must have gotten rid of all their supplies. They pulled that stunt and everyone followed like sheep. Well, not everyone. I guess it worked so well last time, they are going to try it again. This time its called the super bug. They must watch the same scary movies that I do.

Right now I'm telling you that the Americans got nothing on us. Them and their Mexicans. We have two Ukrainians charged with trying to smuggle eight Eastern Europeans into Canada on a sailboat. So there. We're in the big time now. To be truthful, I don't know why they go through all this trouble. For the rest of the summer they are expecting 130 cruise ships to dock in Halifax. All they have to do is get a ticket on a cruise ship. It docks at Halifax at off you go. And if you can't get a ticket, how hard can it be to stow away on a vessel with a zillion passangers? It seems that people can't take the simple way of doing things.

Latest Facebook entries are: When stupid people believe something, it's hard to change their mind. Wives excluded from former, included in latter.

Is there such a thing as getting up late if you're retired?

I don't know about Snoop Dogg, but I wouldn't mind seeing Snoopy fly in on his Sopwith Camel.

I heard that Snoop Dogg went to Cape breton to see Whitney Houston. Found out too late it was Whitney Pier.

The United Panhandlers and Vagrants Union

Holy Moley! Checked Home Depot flyer this morning and they have a snow blower fo rsale. It's only the middle of Aug. I guess they replace lawnmowers and barbacues. It rained last night so everything is wet. Had plans to work on my ramp to the shed. When I built it a few years ago, I never attached it. Just left it laying up against. So last winter when everything froze, it lifted the ramp above the door opening so I couldn't open the door. Had to wait for a few days till it thawed out and then I dragged it away from the door. This year it gets mounted.

Well we had another coyote attack in Cape Breton. That was a few days ago and I remember reading about it online. The first comment after that was why this girl was out at 4:30 am.  I thought she might be out jogging because some people do that very early. As it turns out, she was sleeping in a sleeping bag outside her parents tent. The coyote came and decided to munch on her head. She screamed and yelled and the coyote took off. Could have been a lot worse. What if he had grabbed her by the throat and she was unable to yell? A lot of what ifs. Anyway that coyote is in the bad books and they want him hanging on someone's wall. I don't imagine that any sports team down there will want to call themselves "The Coyotes." Then again, its Cape Breton, they might.

Remember the guy living atop a gold mine? Well they hauled him away the other day, his heels dragging in the mud. He was offered $350,000. but was hanging on for 1 million. Now it will be settled for fair market value. This dumb-ass doesn't understand that greed only works for rich people not the rest of us.

Here's a headline that really caught my eye. "Panhandlers targeted for job training." Holy crap, now you're asking for trouble. Do these guys have a union like "The United Panhandlers and Vagrants Union?" Can we look forward to these guys protesting on the main drag? Some of them make a lot of bucks. We're talking hundreds a day. Do you think they want to go to school? I'm more likely to read something else into this. I'm talking about these leeches who dream up some product of helping someone and get the government to give them a grant. Once these grants start, they are hard to stop. Just like a charity, the money has to keep rollin in.

Bears And the Marijuana Grow

Well, that project is done. Electric start for the snow blower this winter. Nice weather today. Not too hot.

Saw this headline that said two were arrested for marijuana and bear spay. What I can see from this is that bears love marijuana. I mean, why else would they have the bear spray? What would you do if you went out to check your grow and saw bears munching away. We're not like Americans, where everyone has a shotgun in their truck. And if they did have guns, they couldn't just go blasting away. How would you explain all the dead bears. I wonder if you left a case of Charmin for them as a bribe. They would see the toilet paper and think. "Hey this guy threats us with respect. We'll leave this grass alone." And it's not that easy for them to get toilet paper. They would have to be in T.V. commercials or something.

No sooner did I turn the page and there it was, another marijuana item. This one had a picture and was three quarters of a page long. No bears this time though. There wasn't any people either. Seems that the Mounties raided a house that was a pot grow. It was outside the city and had 343 mature marijuana plants and  had been going on for a couple of years. That's according to the neighbours, who boast that they knew all along. Did they know or are they just dumb asses trying to get their two minutes of fame? The Mounties should go back now and arrest all those who said they knew about it. We'll see how much bragging there is then. The power meter had been bypassed. Need a lot of power to run all those fans, lightbulbs etc. Shouldn't the power co. have noticed something wrong? I guess the water company is better at policing. Arrest the power co. too. How about the landlord? Since the place was rented, wouldn't you think he would check on it once in awhile? He definately gets arrested.

So the signs of a pot grow. House has no tenants, just visitors. House gets no maintenance. Weeds at the front of the house are as high as your eyeballs. Truckload of fans and lightbulbs came to the house. Windows are covered with tinfoil and there is an odor around the house. Empty truck comes every four months and leaves full. No one has a barbacue. And most of all, no one has ever invited you over for a beer. Look out your window now. Notice anything?

Another thing that really gets my goat is The National Parole Board. These people should be locked up. I think they are psychiatrists and psychologists. And we all know they have more problems than the rest of us. I think that happens in university. They get a list of all the human failings and they pick out the ones they should have. Anyway, I was reading about this guy who has convictions for attempted murder, arson, theft, carrying a concealed weapon and multipal sexual assults. In Feb. of 2009 the top court concluded that he was a substantial risk. At that time he was serving a six year sentence for assulting someone in jail fracturing the guy's eye socket and knocking out sixteen teeth. In July they decided to let the guy out on unescorted outings. It sounds like they do this out of spite. Like telling the judges, I know more about this than you do. Would they feel the same if he knocked on their doors? anyway, I think he is walking around your neighbour.

Yesterday's Facebook entry: Every lobsterman has an issue with poachers; every lobster has an issue with lobstermen.

Today's Facebook entry: Is there such a thing as getting up late if you're retired?

American And Canadian Taliban

Friday morning after a night of big rain. And today we are supposed to have showers. I was hoping to have this project all finished before my wife got home. Have to pick her up on Sunday. Maybe it's God's way of telling me that I need a project manager when I slice across the lawn. She is more likely to lay the sods back nice and perfect. I measured the distance yesterday with the light rain as my accompanist. 74" from the shed. I'll get 80". I'll need wire and underground ducting. Hard to dig where the grass is high, so I'll have to mow the area where I'm going to digg.

There are some things that really choke me. They were talking on CNN last night about Americans that choose to go and fight for the Taliban. We have the same type of idiots here in Canada. Off they go to Pakistan to help the Taliban. Since we are at war with them, it is my firm belief that these people should be treated as traitors. Canada is not good enough for them unless they get caught. Then its Oh Canada, please help me. Take me back home again. So home they come, get their crybaby lawyers and moan and complain about how bad they were treated. If you've broken the law in Pakistan, they should keep you and then you can think long and hard about what you are fighting for. I read about one the other day. Got caught and spent four years in a Pakistan. They got him out and now he's not being prosecuted because his rights were stepped on. His father was a friend of bin Laden and a money raiser for him. He got smucked over there. His younger brother is in Gitmo for throwing a grenade that killed an American. They can keep him.

In Malartic, Quebec, there is a guy sitting on top of a gold mine. A mining company wants to start work on a multibillion-dollar operation but this guy is holding up the boat. He won't sell his house. So they went to court  and the verdict was, OK bud, you're outta here. They may drag him out by his toenails as early as Monday. So is this government pushing the little guy around or something else. I'm going to put this in perspective, at least my perspective.

It starts of that there were 204 houses there. It's part of a town. Everyone else sold out and they had their house moved to another part of town or it was destroyed. They say his house is run down and he doesn't actually live there all the time. The value of the house is $14,000. and he has been offered $350,000. Any crap that this is to protect personal property rights goes down the drain when you find out that he actually wants 1 million dollars.

I can't see the people in the area being very buddy-buddy with him any longer. He is holding up something that is going to provide a lot of jobs. This has been going on for three years and now they will receive compensation determined by a provincal tribunal in exchange for the home. Any bet that it will be less than $350,000.?

Colour Outside The Lines

Yesterday it rained and rained and then rained somemore. Right now it is foggy, wet and cloudy. I won't be rushing outside to start my cable trench.

You can read a newspaper from twenty years ago, one from today and one from twenty years from now and you will always read "Canada can do more to eliminate poverty." This article is about poverty in Canada not the rest of the world. Lets be truthful, that is not going to happen.  In my opinion, a lot of it comes down to lifestyle. It's not the amount of money you make but how you spend it. If you can't afford milk, then why are you smoking? Another reason for poverty can be intelligence. Not enough on the ball to make right decisions. A prime example of that is people without even a down payment buying a half million dollar house. When I read this article I looked to see who wrote it. It was written by an MP, member of the opposition party. So this is nothing but grandstanding, digging for votes. He knows nothing can be done but its an easy way to blame the government for something. All the parties do it.

In Halifax we have twenty three councillors and the mayor. That makes a total of twenty-four. In cities of the same size in the rest of Canada there are usually sixteen to twenty. Halifax and Dartmouth amalgamated a few years back hence the twenty-four. There has been some stink raised over this, so finally council put it to a vote. The outcome of the vote is that greed overcame common sense. As soon as they heard the word "less" they voted against it.  "Council sticks with status quo" is what the headline read. Actually it was a tie vote 12 - 12. It was defeated because it was a tie. For the life of me I can't see the advantage for the councillors. It's not like they would be fired. If a seat was vacated, they just wouldn't have an election for it. These guys can't be that bright. If they saved all that money, they could have given themselves a raise.

I heard this statement yesterday "Some people choose to colour outside the line." I think it is supposed to be taken as a compliment, like thinking outside the box. I don't think they realize that most people who colour outside the lines are usually four year olds or so.

My Facebook entry for today is: If you go into the woods and are wondering if there are any bears, just look around and see if there is any toilet paper.

You know where that came from. Watching the Charmin ads.

The Fall Of The American Empire

Yesterday I started on the wire the shed project. Did all the inside work and then hooked up an entension cable to the fusebox. Lo and behold, it all worked. That was at 5 P.M. Then the plan was to measure for the underground cable. But it started to rain, so that was the end to that plan. Too bad I couldn't get the distance. I could buy the materials today. When I start something, I like to take it to the finish. One of my neighbours is building a patio. I think he started a month ago. A couple of days ago, he and a friend were pounding nails. Yesterday, nothing. I'm wondering if he'll finish by winter. Why I'm thinking that is because he's the guy who has a landscaper come in to mow his lawn. Anyway, that's him and for me it will rain all day. No trench digging for me.

I suppose you've heard about the problem checking veiled women at the airport. Common sense just does not prevail in this case. I'm assuming that that they had a photo taken without a veil. So what's the problem now? They crap on us because they can. The one they like to crap on the most is the Americans. They are doing that in fine style in New York right now with the cultural center near the 9-11 site. To me, this is totally wrong. I have no problem with them building a Mosque, but why add insult to injury. They can build it somewhere else but it doesn't give them the publicity they get now. The Islamic world can look at this and say,"Look what they are dong to our religion in America!  Off with their heads." I'm all for democracy but even in this you have to draw a line. You can't let everyone run amuk and do what they want. I believe in the U.S. their brand of democracy is doing them in. Their enemies use it against them every which way but loose.

The laws in England evolved starting in 1215 with The Magna Carta. Over the years it changed to where it is now. It didn't happen that way in the U.S. For them it started in 1776 when they threw out everything and started over. The trouble with that is that its the thoughts and ideas of the people of that period. They didn't have a long period thinking about it or gauging its outcome. I always hear the sentence,"I wonder what the founding fathers had in mind when they said this?" The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear this is the gun law. In 1776 that would have been a good idea. The people then didn't know if their country would be there the next day. But today, not such a good idea. They didn't evolve and they now have a gun problem that keeps getting worse. Two mass shootings yesterday.

I just thought that this is much better than a typewriter. How could you go back and correct all the spelling mistakes? In school my best subject was history. I love historical films. It also helps if they have a bit of truth.  Take for example, "Braveheart." Great movie but mostly crap. There was a William Wallace in Scotland, who did battle the English. But that's pretty well it. In the movie they led us to believe that he made out with the princess. In actual fact she was four years old at that time. I never read anywhere that they did a mooning. Do you think that Mel Gibson would use artistic license?

It appears to me that I am watching a remake of the fall of the roman empire. Not just the U.S. but western civilization in general. Rome sent troops to other countries, ditto. Tried to control the resources of these countries, ditto. At home was greed and decadence, ditto. Everyone tries to go to Rome to get a piece of the action, ditto. Subjects of losing countries start raising shit, ditto. Rome is changed into a bunch of Italians with Fiats. Awaiting sequel.

Are We Naive Or just Dumb?

Tuesday morning and as far as weather is concerned, it will leave everythng as is. So the first thing I do get my coffee and grab the paper. I almost choked on my coffee when I read the headlines, "Spy agency to probe itself." That has to be the joke for the day. The newspaper must figure it has a lot of gullable readers. Then again, there are a lot of naive people running around. To be fair, all of us are a bit naive. Some are downright dumb. I knew a woman once that if I told her that headline, she would say,"Oh, that's good."

A friend was over yesterday looking for a wheel for his lawn mower. The ones I had were too small but then I remembered the mower I was throwing out. Sure enough, right size wheels. He took one of them and after he left I took off the other three. I remembered that he broke one last summer and now I have his next summer replacement. Then I mowed my neighbour's lawn.

From my list of summer projects, I only have two left. Electricity for the shed and work on the snow blower. I went to the hardware store and bought the parts I needed for the shed and found out the information about the underground wiring. Then I started on the shed part and I will finish it all today. I'll have to measure the cable length after that.

When "The Black eyed Peas" were in town, the promoter had asked the city for $400,000. He didn't get it and I'm glad of that. The promoter never said that he lost any money so I'm assuming that he made a profit. 30,000 people attended the show. Since he is a businessman, he should be treated as such. All the stores don't get a kickback when they open their door. All businessmen take a risk, charge for their wares and watch their expenses. I'm sure he knows how much to charge to make a profit. If you go to the show, you pay the piper. If I don't go to he show, I shouldn't have to pay.

Talking about dumb headlines. "When you're sick it pays to be rich." It goes on to say,"Study suggests wealthy cancer patients live linger; researchers wonder why differences exist." Duh! You needed a study. You know that someone got big money to that study. Later on it read that thry wanted to do another study to see if it was the same in other provinces. I can see where this is going. Looks like a career job.

Facebook entry for today: If you don't want to be noticed in the backwoods, squint a lot and and leave out half your words.

"Inception" Is My Exception

Monday morning. Natal Day in Halifax. You can see a Parade. The only parade I'll see is me behind  lawn mower. My wife and daughter are away for a week, but I'm sure we won't starve. But the day is starting off really, really bad. They say that the average Canadian retires at 62 1/2. And that's what I did. Being typically Canadian, I didn't want to rock the boat. But yesterday evening I found out that I was not average. Whether I'm above or below doesn't matter. This all came about because of a movie. Everyone is raving about the movie "Inception." Some people call it awesome. I'm of the mind that if you call a movie awesome, that means you paid to see it. If you get the movie for free, then your feelings might be different. I never hear anyone say," I went to that movie last night and it was the pitts." Maybe awesome means that they went out last night with friends, had a great time and I think there was a movie on too. I remember that if you took your girlfriend to the Drive-in, they were all awesome, even if it was "The Red Blob From Mars."

Ellen Page was in "Inception." A home town girl, you have to be faithful to her, right? I've watched all her ads for "Cisco." Not Cisco Kid you dummy, Cisco Systems. Anyway, I watched the first 15 min. and it was terrible. Changed to a different movie. Later on it was, "I'm sorry Ellen, maybe I was rash, I'l give it another try. A half hour later, nope, I hate it. Maybe its one of those movies that when it comes out of the theatre, you never hear about it again. That would put me back on the normal list. I have to get back. Don't want to wander around abnormal.

I seem to be getting myself in a rut. Not only about "Inception", but also about "Haven", a show made in Lunenburg. Again I'm being faithful to a Nova Scotia product. Did you ever watch that show? I've watched four shows so far and I sweat that everyone in that burg needs anger management. Every show seems to be the same. Things fly around and go bump in the night, all because someone is having a temper tantrum. That's on my short list for shows to get rid of.

On facebook for today: If you go to Tim Hortons with a problem relative to share a donut, one gets the donut and the other gets the hole.

Vacation Day Deserved

Sunday morning with forecast for same weather as yesterday. This afternoon, my wife and daughter go away for a week. They go to our friends house in Eastern Passage. The house is right on the ocean. Lots of family so there is always a bunch of people around. We call it our daughter's vacation. So she is all excited. It's the week for the parade and fireworks. They drag my daughter in the wheelchair all over the place. A difficult thing to do. If God let you pick your own relatives, life would be pretty good.

A friend of mine made a comment on one of my rants.
If you haven't read a book called "The Peter Principle", see if you can locate a copy...... it has an explanation for some of the promotions you refer to......   "
I'm sure everyone knows what that means but if not here is the short version.
The Peter Principle is the principle that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".
This brings up the question that if you first join an organization and are found out to be incompentant, where do you go? You go into the sideways shift. Well known in the military. They keep sending you from job to job, until they find you a job where you can cause the least damage.

What brought this to mind was an article I read the other day. It concerns a WW2 german prison guard. They said he was responsible for 422,000 deaths. So I had to look at that. He must be something else to be responsible for so many. I learn that he marched people, locked doors etc. They said he did all the guard duty type jobs in the camp. So you can guess my thoughts on that. They shifted him from job to job because he couldn't do anything right. After two years, he lost that posting. Went back home to his village and stayed there till now at 88 years of age.

He was nabbed by the Simon Wiesenthal Org. which is in some respects is like an organization funded by donations. You have to keep the money rolling in. The number of war criminals is starting to thin out, so then what. All such organizations face the same dilemma. People to be paid. The org. is in place, all you need is a new disease. I'll give you an example. The War Amps. Started for WW2  amputees and when that started to dry up, they switched to children. Of course I agree that was I good idea. Sadly to say, that won't dry up. What if they find a cure for cancer. Many and massive organizations. Doesn't a cancer cure seem to be taking a long time?

"Black Eyed Peas," "Black Eyed Peas." I'm sick of reading about them. They did a show on Gay Pride Day and there has been an article about them in the newspaper every day. I think the articles should have been put in the week before, not after. It's like they never heard of them and they are trying to make up. Anyway, I don't like black eyed peas and I don't like green beans either.

Facebook entry for today is: "Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Prince Charles Will Save The World

Saturday morning on what promises to be a beautiful day. About to do my usual Sat. routine, take my wife & daughter Yardsaleing. I think she found an empty spot in the house, so we have to find something to fill it. Better bring some money in case I find something for me. There's a difference between her and I. I actually look for legitimate stuff. Something like electrical boxes for wiring my shed. I think they should have yard sales for men only. Just sell manely stuff. Like car parts, beer hats and the all time favourite barbacue aprons. It's hard to have a yard sale for men. We don't have any junk. Everything we have, we need. And there is a reason for that. Every time the wife figures it's getting too crowded and she has to throw out stuff, she turfts out the husbands stuff.

Yesterday I mentioned the auction of Winston Churchill's dentures. I have to admit that I was slightly incorrect on that. It was only the upper plate, so I guess you can say it was only half a mouthful. They expected $8,000. but actually got almost $ 23,000. I guess it was because they changed the name of the item. They no longer called them Winston's Churchill's dentures. No sir. They called them, "The Teeth That Saved The World." Wouldn't you bid on something like that? There was probably a bidding frenzy after that. Imagine coming home to your wife and she asks,"What did you get at the auction dear?" OH, I got "The Teeth That Saved The World."  I don't know where they are now. Hope not in someone's mouth.

The Canadian Navy are getting new helicopters. Yes, and they are due three years ago. So we will be getting them at a later date. If some of the requirements are dropped we can get them at a earlier later date rather than a later date. Stuff like a system that allows info to be exchanged between ship and helicopter. Even so I think that we have to have something. We can still use flags, can't we? Too slow? So the solution to that would be to have Twitter accounts. Everyone would be issued an ipod. Another uneccessary item is an endurance test for flying in warm weather. By then we won't be in Afghanistan so why worry about warm weather. Another is a test that requires that one engine keeps going if the other engine fails at higher temperatures. I am kind of leery about that one. I understand that one engine won't fail because we are not in Afghanistan, but thinking about a car, if the engine overheats, you shut it down or it will do it by itself. Maybe they think that after the engine blows, the helicopter falling to earth will cool off the second engine and it will start. Or maybe they couldn't find a pilot stupid enough to do that test.

The bottom line is that Canadian factories get more jobs for the next twenty years, which is probably what they wanted. The end result is we are getting helicopters early later, have flags as communications with engines that may fail if they fly over southern Ontario in August.

By the way, you can make comments on these articles. If they are nasty, they won't see the light of day and you have been talking to yourself.

My add to Facebook today is: Prince Charles: 'My duty is to save the world'... We're in good hands now.

International Protestors Union?

The day is starting off wrong. The Canadian Tire flyer had driveway sealer at $12.99. Aaagh!. I bought mine in June for $30.00. Can't do anything about that. It's not like you can buy and save them. The other day, I switched those lawn mowers around. Now I have exactly what I want. Two mowers, both 6.75 hp, one with a bag on the back and the other with large rear wheels. I guess that's the end of that hobby. Rained all day yesterday and last night. Today it's cloudy, no wind and supposed to be hot this afternoon.

Right now I have a deal you might be interested in. Part of a set of dentures used by Winston Churchill to disguise a lisp is going on sale. Expecting around $8,000. How about this piece of history for your coffee table? Imagine the hot words that passed over these teeth. Or maybe not. There are actually two sets and the first one is in the museum. So the second one may have only spouted hot air. And I'm sure you've had your fill of that.

When you watched the Soccer World Cup and you saw how bad the North Korean team did, you probably figured the coach would be in big kaka. Well, he is no longer a coach, he is a construction worker. I thought he would end up in jail at the least. So maybe he was favoured. And the coach from Brazil? He also got turfed. Reminds me of the ball game the Mayans used to play. The losing team were toast. No free agents there.
I bet they were always looking for new players.

Here's a title that turns your head when you first glance at it."Separatists Start Five-Day Strike In India kashmir." When I saw that all I could say was, "Good Lord, now the protestors are going on strike?" It appears they are. Starting today, for five days, the store owners are going to close all their stores. But not wanting to cause their customers any grief, they will go off strike for Sunday, then back on strike on Monday. And you wonder why these countries still live the way they did 2000 years ago. Wonder if they belong to the International Protestors Union?

My Facebook entry today is: "I must be losing it. Saw this headline "Snooki Knocks Obama's Tanning Tax." And I actually knew who Snooki was. Help! I'm sinking into the celebrity abyss."

Where Has My Promotion Gone?

Storm on the way. That's what they say. In that case, I'll just do inside stuff.

I was watching a tv show the other day called, "Crash $ Burn." It's about an insurance company. So there is a promotion coming up and one guy asks if he is going to get it? His boss says to him,"What! You're the best Adjuster we have. You save us millions of dollars a year. I woud be crazy to promote you and lose all that." And there in lies the truth. I suppose that you believe in the old adage, study, work hard and you will get ahead. That sounds good but that's not the way it works in the real world. The more useless you are, the more likely you'll get promoted. I bet you see that around your workplace. The hard working, smartest and best employees are the foundation that hold up the company. Can't promote them. Who would do the work. If you are getting a little older, maybe you are starting to clue into that now.

Does the military operate that way? You bet your combat boots they do. We had a saying in the military. Card players promote card players and drunks promote drunks. Of course, hard workers promote hard workers, but they are few and far between. This reminds me of something else. In the military they are always sending people on courses to keep up with the new stuff. So you can assume that they would send the best people, so they can keep up with the new stuff. No,no, no! Are you crazy. If they did that, who would do all the work? You have to send the person who is the most useless. Now what happens after that? Promotion time. "Look at this guy. Really gung-ho. Always going on courses. Up to date on everything. This is the guy we have to promote. Besides that, he's the Generals nephew.

Saw something the other day that flu vaccines are free this year. Also protects against H1N1. It is always free for a certain segment of the population. That would be me. When they were in panic mode last year, it was free to everyone. So maybe they are saying it's free for those who don't need it. So what are my thoughts on this?  First of all, they have too much vaccine left over. If they give it out, the doctors can charge the health insurance $20. a shot. During the panic last year, I didn't get any shots. Once I found out that the upper crust wasn't getting the same as the rest of us, I was wary. I also took into consideration the financial crisis, where thet were trying to get money into circulation by any means. Everyone associated with getting the vaccine to people had to be paid. Another way of getting money into the economy. Didn't hurt the drug companies either.

Time to bash the Water Commision now. My wife's friend told me yesterday that she had a call from them asking if they should come out and change the meter? They said that the water bill was down and they wondered if they had changed the consumption or if the meter was broken. She told them that her husband was in the hospital for the last two months and he used to water the lawn like crazy. So they were happy with that.  I guess this begs the question that if the bill had doubled, would she still get a phone call about the condition of the meter?

My facebook note today is. "Aaah! I'm the victim of rapid ageing. I'm sure I was 19 yesterday."

1900 Electric Car Photo

Today it's supposed to be 28C/82F. Of course the humidity will be higher. We are waiting for the Power Co. to arrive. They are going to pick up my old humidifier and gve me $10.00. Considering that I bought an almost new one at a yard sale for the same price, its a win win situation. Then its off for a haircut. Also thinking that today I may switch motors on two lawn mowers. But that's to be seen since my wife hasn't given me my marching orders yet. On second thought, she did tell me something last night. I have to fix something on my daughters wheelchair. Better do that right now.

O.K. That's done. And the haircut too. As I was having a bagel this morning, I remembered the first one I had. I was visiting a cousin in N.Y.C. and Sunday morning after mass, we went to a bagel store. They had six cash registers and a lineup like McDonald's. Behind this was trays of different flavour cream cheese. That was my first experience with bagels and I was impressed. This reminds me of my first experience with large pretzels. Driving into Philadelphia, there were people at the stop lights selling large pretzels covered with course salt. My wife, being from Germany, had to have one. Soft pretzels, yum,yum.We went to Philly over thirty times and Pretzels were on the menu.

The big buzz on tv last night was the new Chev. electric car. As you can see from the photo, the electric car is not new. We had them over a hundred years ago and progress went nowhere. They were slapped down by the oil companies. As Sarah Palin would say,"Well, how did that work out for ya? Maybe not that well, considering oil supplies, pollution etc. Where would the electric car be now if had a hundred years to improve? Would the planet be a better place to live? That's something we will never know. Greed dictates how things go and the track record is not too good on that.

They have small videos on tv about Canadian history. One of them was about Jacques Cartier who is credited with claiming Canada for France in the early 1500's. In the video he is aboard ship and one of the crew tells him that they have trouble steering the ship because of the amount of cod. When he goes for a look, he says something like,"My God, we have enough fish to feed the world till the end of time." Well, how did that work out for ya?  The reason I mention this is that you can't fish for cod anymore. We all know that. But in Newfoundland, for the next two weeks, you can fish for cod. Not with a net, a fishing line. So it will be cod for dinner and fishcakes for the freezer. I guess forever came sooner than we thought.

School Days. School Days. Good Old Golden Rule Days

Tue. morning. Should be a nice day. Sunny with a little wind. Sounds like a grass cutting day. Can't start yet, though. Don't want to wake up the neighbours.

The top story in our newspaper today is about kids in school. It appears that the math test marks are too low. But our educators have a solution for that. Our great and wise have decided that the marks are too low because the bar is set too high. How do like that for a solution? Wait a minute now. We had that test three years ago and guess what? They decided that the bar was too high. I don't know if lowering the bar each time is a good plan. Would we then be graduating idiots? Perhaps we are already at that stage. Ever go to a store and have someone count change back to you, without the use of a cash register. That's pretty scarey.It appears that the educators never paid attention when they went to school. "These teachers don't know what they are talking about. I know better than them. And when I grow up and become a teacher, I'm going to show them." And they certainly have.

Read the other day that they are sending down to he Gulf area a local prof. who is an economist and whatever else. He is going down with The Economic Development Council. And he was asked because Nova Scotia has physical, economic and cultural similarities to Louisiana. The only similarity I see is that some of their ancestors came from Nova Scotia.

They are going down for three days to assess the economic recovery needs. First of all I think they have enough Americans that can do that. The people living there know better than anyone what is required. Who is paying for all this? Did someone have their hand in my wallet? Looks like a bunch of guys, doing the same job, getting together at someone else's expense. Getting photos and getting fodder for a university lecture, a newspaper article and whatever else.

There was this picture in the some paper the other day about a vegetarian protesting eating meat. She was dressed as a lettuce. The article said she wanted to turn over a new leaf. What they mean is that she wants us to turn over a new leaf.

Cash For Clunkers

Monday morning and back to the warm temps. again. They say for most of the week. Woke up at 7:00 this morning to the sound of sirens. And it sounded like a lot of them. When you are involved with a siren, it's usually bad news. No plans yet on what to do today. What do seniors do? Weave baskets? This reminds me of old peoples homes. My son and his friend went to visit his father. Told me that he never expected to spend Sat. afternoon doing that and it was really scarey. The guy's father told them that his tv didn't work. Couldn't change channels. He had been clicking it and now was up around 100. The channels were changing .1 each time. Said that his tv hadn't worked for months. My son restored everything and wrote down directions on a piece of paper. His son didn't know about this because he always took him home for the afternoon and his father never mentioned it. Not being able to use something like a tv clicker sure decreased his quality of life.

Now that the Gay Parade is over, the next attraction for the masses is the Psychic Fair this weekend. They don't have the same crowds, so they don't get a parade. I saw pictures of some floats and they could use them in a parade. They could start with a large crystal ball and a Genie hanging out of the top.

You probably saw this item on the news about a guy who traded up from a cellphone to a BMW. He did it in seventeen trades. My take on this is that this guy must live in an area where it is easy to find seventeen really stupid people. Who trades down to something of a lesser value? My son thinks it was a con. Maybe he was able to tell each one of them that if they would do a deal, they would get on the news and all be famous. Well, two of them got on the news. Him and his buddy that gave him the cell phone. The others were in the land of how can you be so stupid? I think the clincher for me was the motor bikes. There were a number of them. Who in their right mind would trade a bike for a lesser model and walk away?

In the U.S. they had this "Cash For Clunkers" deal. I think they gave you $2000. Up here, we have a recycle program for old cars. They take cars 1995 and before. And what do you get in return? Why, you get a bicycle or a bus pass for a month. Wouldn't that just get you all excited? Do you think that if I gave them a bicycle, they would they give me an old Volkswagen Bug?

The Souped Up Drink Cooler

Saw something on New People's Almanac this morning. It said that 80% of millionairs drive a second hand car. So I was fairly impressed with this. Thinking that some millionairs don't waste their money. Told my wife about it and she said, "Well Jay Leno has used cars." Then I was not so impressed. After that I told my son the same thing. He said "Sure , but they can also have a new car. Now getting less impressed. Then I think, yeah, a guy can have a 2009 Maserati. No longer impressed.

Now here's a story about the souped up drink cooler. This guy was stopped, riding on the sidewalk and got a ticket for $222.00. Now when you look at this thing, it's not much different than something from the scooter shop.  It's not as pretty and it's home made but it's about the same size. I don't know why he got the ticket but I have a few ideas about it. He says that he drives it at 5 to 10 mph. but says it goes 50 mph. Anything going that speed has to have a licence and probably drive on the road. You wouldn't be able to drive your car on the sidewalk even if you went 5 to 10 mph. There is something else thought I don't know if it has anything to do with it. The guy is about 42  years old and I don't think he has any handicap. Anyway, he is going to fight it in court. Right now he is grounded.

Since the dock workers in Montreal have gone on strike, it has given more business to Halifax. Does an increase in port traffic also mean an increase in drug traffic? Seem like the two would go hand in hand.

I have four brothers of which I am the oldest. One day someone said to me that I would die first. Inquiring how he got to that deduction, he said because I was the oldest. My thought was,"Hold on Tonto, this is not the Supermarket, where if you are at the front of the line, you get to go thru the checkout first."